TRENTON — City Council on Thursday talked about budget matters, including possibly closing two senior centers, and listened to the cries of a Pearl Street resident who detailed how open-air drug deals occur in front of her house and how she’s reached the “breaking point” in trying to get the police to take firm action.

“This is not a matter of budget; it’s a matter of following through,” said Vanessa Speight, who moved from North Jersey to Trenton’s Pearl Street in 2009. She said trash lines the street and that drug users hang out over there from late at night into the early morning hours, serving as a nuisance and plague on the community.

“The wire — this is what Trenton is looking like,” said Speight, referring to the classic HBO drama series that a depicted a drug trafficking empire and its influence in the city of Baltimore.

“Her complaint is valid,” said Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward, adding that Speight’s narrative talked about housing, police and public works functions that the Mayor Tony Mack administration needed to address pronto.

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City Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson on Thursday referred Speight to Trenton Public Works Director Luis Mollinedo, who took down Speight’s information.

On the budget, West Ward Councilman Zachary Chester at Thursday’s meeting talked about his goal to keep the city’s municipal tax rate in check.

Mack, who was arrested last month on federal extortion charges, has directed his administration to present City Council with a budget proposal that calls for a 19-cent increase on the tax rate to fill a $4 million gap between projected revenues and appropriations. That would translate to paying $190 more in property taxes to a city homeowner residing in a property assessed at $100,000.

“The taxes have not been increased. It’s been proposed, so we still have work to do,” Chester said. “My goal is to take that proposed tax increase of 19 cents and take it below 5.”

Chester said the city needs to take a hard look at areas to cut from. He said the city may have to close two of the four senior centers and that curbside trash may have to be picked up once a week instead of two times.

“No one sitting up here wants a 19-cent tax increase. We don’t want it,” Chester said. “I’m going to work to cut things. That’s what I’m going to do.”

Mack’s proposed budget calls for $190,000 to be spent on operating the mayor’s four learning centers, according to Chester. “I do not support the learning centers. They were not opened properly,” Chester said.

The four learning center sites used to be full-fledged neighborhood libraries operated by the Trenton Free Public Library. Those neighborhood libraries closed under Mack’s watch in August 2010 amid a budget crisis. Mack reopened them this year as learning centers. Former state librarian Norma Blake, before retiring, said Mack’s learning centers were being operated in violation of state law.

“They are already on my budget sheet scratched out,” Chester said of his intention to provide no funding for the learning centers. “Along with Heritage Days and Thanksgiving Day parade and lighting of the Christmas tree: Those things we cannot afford to do.”

City Council on Thursday didn’t discuss or vote on any resolution demanding Mack to step down from power. The Majority for a Better Trenton civic group on Tuesday presented council with a draft resolution that, if adopted by City Council, would deem “no confidence” in Mack’s leadership and ask Mack to remove himself from office.

Elected in 2010, Mack’s two years in office have been marred with scandals and criticism to the point where 8,500 city residents in 2011 signed a petition in a failed attempt to have Mack recalled from office.

One of the leaders of that failed recall effort, Dave Ponton, on Thursday told council to consider the “no confidence” resolution and vote on it as one body “right here where you do official business.”

East Ward Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson on Tuesday called for Mack’s resignation and North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson on Thursday reaffirmed she “already made a public comment in the press asking for the mayor to resign.”

South Ward Councilman George Muschal, who missed recent council meetings due to recent surgery, marked his return at Thursday’s meeting. Muschal talked about city employees driving city-owned vehicles far outside of the city’s borders: “They are taking cars out of the city. We’re stuck with the bill,” he said.

Another issue that council members discussed was the incident of city employee Paul Harris driving a city-owned vehicle without authorization earlier this year and crashing the vehicle.

“If someone takes a car unauthorized, whatever the consequences, we have to answer that,” Holly-Ward said.

“If you want specific answers on personnel, then we can talk about that in executive session,” Hutchinson said.